Chicago to DC with Mike G as my Tour Guide

I went to Washington for Passover with Kerensa - we loaded up the Hyundai and rolled out last week. A brief review of what we ate, thanks to Mike's legwork and the kindness of the LTH community. First stop on the way out of town was Pullman to stock up on provisions and pick up an apple fritter for my father who favors them. We bought the last apple fritter, considered, briefly, staying to wait the thirty minutes till the next batch of fritters was out of the frier, but the draw of the open road was irresistable. With a sack of fresh chocolate frosted longjohns in hand, a texas style glazed doughnut for a gift, plus a couple of whatever they had for a snack, we were off.

First stop was Indianopolis - we passed up shapiro's to chase down the elusive pork tenderloin sandwich. We ended up at the IceHouse recoed in JiLS's Indy megapost - which was as advertised, a converted icehouse with lots of big screen nascar on the walls. K and I split a pork tenderloin pictured here:



The verdict? I have no baseline to compare - it was a bit thicker than anticipated, but crispy and salty and nice. I look forward to expanding my tenderloin repertoire in the future, although it'll be hard to pass up shapiro's again. In fact, I could'nt totally pass it up this time out - i stopped for a loaf of rye bread to bring my aunt in Dayton (my mother is fond of recollecting how when she was a girl in the bronx she vastly preferred a slice of seeded rye bread to anything sweet after school. I figured, correctly, that this sort of preference must be in the blood.)

Dayton for the night - my aunt took us to a pan-Latino place outside of Dayton, the name of which escapes me. Food was quite good in a kind of tchochketeria laden with artifacts of central america and beyond - lots of schlocky ceramic frogs and theme rooms. I had a peruvian pork tenderloing (two in one day!) in a chipotle sauce and some very pleasant pannacotta (which they called tres leches flan).

On the road again the next day, Kerensa and I tried to sniff out a good meal in Washington PA, and found a decent slice of pie at the Tower restaurant near I-70 - not worth a return visit.

DC was a whirlwind - besides two seders with matzoh balls, brisket, kugelach (matza meal egg popovers) etc, we had memorable meals at Full Kee, including stellar soft shell crabs and non-insipid clams. Of course, I was too hungry to remember to pull out the camera before lunch, but here's the wreckage afterwards:



Excellent pizza at Two Amy's; stunning Japanese woodblocks at the Sackler gallery, an automated performance of the Dada movie soundtrack ballet mechanique on 40 pianos, fire alarm and air raid siren, great kebabs and fresh persian naan at Moby Dick in Bethesda, nice boudin, and impeccable fried oyster Po Boy at Louisiana Express. I think I may have eaten too much.



On the way home, we found a cheap hotel room in Cleveland and set out to explore some of the spots that had been mentioned in the prior threads. Flat Iron Cafe provided very good fried perch (if slightly over cooked) and the Gelateria in Cleveland Heights was worth an excursion. The eating highlight was Corky & Lenny's, the Jewish style deli that Ann Fisher and others had recommended - very good corned beef (maybe better than the last corned beef sammy I had at Manny's, which was sliced too thin and too lean), delicate kishka, crisp oniony latkes and a nice bowl of half-sours to whet the appetite.





I brought home a half a loaf of rye (not as good as shapiros) and some very good rugelach and a plain knish, which served very well tonight as a welcome home dinner. Cleveland remains a cipher after one night - we drove all over the east side of city, saw the one-block long Littly Italy, drove around the flats and the warehouse district, tried to find the asian neighborhood and drove across the east side of the city by 5 different routes. The area around University Circle was cute, but every other block we saw within city limits outside of downtown was absolute blight - baorded up windows, empty lots, gaping potholes and the smelliest lakefront ever. Where are all the people in Cleveland? Shaker Heights? We had the damnedest time trying to get a feeling for the city and what we found didn't encourage a return visit. Even after reading and rereading the threads, I couldn't figure out where to go to get a sense for the town - and of course being there only on sat night and sunday we couldn't hit the west side market.

So, that's what I ate for the last week - if I look a little rounder the next time you see me, that's why.

Thanks!

Makes me hungry, good thing new sandwiches for me this week!

Well, not sure why I get the credit for your trip-- or the blame as the case may be-- but glad it went reasonably well with the help of the LTHForum hive mind. It is true that Cleveland seems to be strongly suburban with just some early patches of urban reclamation going on, but I enjoyed the area around the market on market day, and there's some life there. If not quite a destination, as a place between here and there it has some nice stuff to see. The nicest area we saw was taking the road along the lake as opposed to the main highway into town from the west; wherever the rest of Clevelandians live, those people are living well.

I'm glad you liked Corky and Lenny's. I'm not a deli expert, but I much prefer it to Manny's. On the other hand, I don't know that it's worth a trip to Cleveland. The West Side Market, however..........

Mike - you're right actually, looking back, Ann Fisher deserves most of the Cleveland credit for steering me right!

Great trip review! I'm so glad you had a good time in my home town, DC. I just had to mention that Lousiana Express was started by my uncle (okay, my aunt's ex-husband, but we still love him) Peter Finkhauser. His son Peter Carl has taken it over. What a great spot.

Glad you made it to Moby Dick House of Kebab! It's the only thing I miss from living in DC. I have never had a better lamb kebab and the freshly made right in front of you Pita bread is wonderful.
LO

Nestled between an Entemann's Bakery outlet and a paint store very close to the Ohio Turnpike in a strip mall outside Cleveland, there is a hidden gem and quite possibly the best beer destination in Cleveland. Inside you forget you are in a strip mall next to a home depot, across from a long bar are wooden booths. The walls are covered with brewerana (beer trays and tin signs old and new). In the back is a brew on premises and a darn good smoking operation. Up front, under a deer's butt hung above the bar, are 24 taps and a hand pull.

We had a pulled pork sandwich which was moist and had nice smoke. The brisket however was the real prize, a beautiful smoke ring and creatively used in a "cheesesteak" with mushrooms, grilled onions and melted provolone. It was nothing like a true Philly steak (a destination later in our trip) but excellent in its own right. Moist flavorful brisket.

Pork Sandwich


Brisket Cheesesteak


The taps included 5 Ringneck beers which are brewed on the premises. They were all quite good. We especially liked the Maibock that was dark, sweet, malty and very German. The Hefeweizen was good but a little untraditional which a touch of hops. The Imperial IPA was dripping with Simcoe hops, giving a very interesting impression of grapefruit juice. The smoked porter had great body, subtle smoke, and nice roast.



The guest taps were no slouches either including a Spezial Rauchbeer, Kulmback EKU 28, and a Bluegrass/Jefferson Reserve Stout, also some nice US microbrews from Southern Tier, Stone, Jolly Pumpkin, Summit, Rogue, Founders, Sierra Nevada, and Gaffel and Dinkel Acker from Germany. Also something called Barrelhouse Boss Cox Double Dark IPA which we'd never seen before. It was almost caramel-y but with some bite (not flowery).

We ended the evening with bread pudding in a bourbon cream sauce. This was rich and dense and delicious.



All in all a great meal, and with ma ny beers, two meals and a dessert, totalled up to a very affordable $42.

After ordering, we noticed the BBQ spaghetti (pasta with pulled pork, BBQ sauce, cheddar and onions). On Saturdays they offer slow smoke roasted prime rib. The place was packed on a Thursday. It was clear that it is appreciated by the locals. It was also appreciated by us travelers and is a new stopover destination on our trips East from Chicago.

So you don't miss it -- this is what it looks like.


The Brew Kettle and Smokehouse
www.thebrewkettle.com
8377 Pearl Rd
Strongsville OH 44136

What a great find! I will definitely add that to my mental list for that region.

Yeah, Brew Kettle is now my undisputed #1 destination in the Cleveland region.
We hit them again for a beer on our way back through Ohio. It was a Sunday at about 2pm and they were 2/3 full, perhaps due to the fact that all of their in-house beers are only $2 on Sunday. This included a 12oz glass of their 2 year old aged Barleywine (11% ABV) that was quite good. We also picked up a bottle of their Belgian-style Trippel to take home ($3.50 for 22oz).

They are located just north of the I-80, near the airport, so they make a great stop even if your just passing by Cleveland.

Just wanted to add a few other comments on our Chicago to DC trek that overlap with this thread and others.

In Cleveland, we had breakfast at Corky & Lenny's.
Just like the brew pub we posted about above, this is located in another strip mall. Must be a Cleveland thing. But it helps to know this when you are looking for it!

I had the corned beef hash and a poached egg -- it was a finely ground hash with bits of bell pepper and onion. The rye was good too, but if we were on top of our game, we would have tried to substitute an everything bagel (which we got to go and were very good) or a latke (also very good, even reheated the next day in cast iron). The pastrami and eggs "pancake style" was a bit dry. I prefer Manny's fatty, spice laden pastrami to C & L. The corned beef was quite nice though.

For me the high point of C & L was the meat knish we took along for road food. The meat was deliciously moist with a livery depth. Great flaky pastry crust.

In DC, we enjoyed seeing the bread being made in the clay oven at Moby Dick and ordered the lamb -- only complaint is that there wasn't enough of it in the wrap -- perhaps the kebob comes with more meat. I liked that the lettuce, tomato, onion mixture in the wrap included feta though!

Our favorite destinations during this visit to DC were clearly Pizza Paradiso which Griffin is crafting a post on, and FULL KEE. Fortunately for us Full Kee was close to where we needed to be for our conference. It was a wonderful experience. We got the "hong kong style won ton soup" (not on the menu, but listed on the table card). The dumpling wrappers were wrapped around plump moist shrimp, perfectly done (not overcooked). There was about a dozen of them too. For main courses we had the soft shell crab and clams in black bean sauce. The crab had no sauce, but was perfectly fried in a light batter. The clams were excellent. (I am a sucker for black bean sauces, and this was a very good one with nice garlic and bean). The green beans in spicy sauce were also great. Our fourth dish was the fish of the day in ginger soy, I think it was yellow grouper, and it was served whole covered in slivers of ginger and it came off the bones easily in big white chunks. Not a bad dish in the lot and a wonderful experience! Thanks to all for these recommendations!

We also hit the Strip in da Burgh (Pittsburgh) on our way back -- which I now notice was mentioned in Mike Gs first Chicago to DC posting. I went to grad school in da burgh, so although the memory of street names is failing a bit, I still have a latent ability to navigate the counterintutive road system. We hit the Strip for breakfast, during which Griffin got us a Mung Bean pancake from a street vendor, a soft shell crab sandwich from Wholey's (that actually came with 2 crabs since they were so small) and a eggplant/meatball sandwich from Sunseri's.

IMHO Primanti's are not what they used to be so I didn't force that on Griffin. (I used to order the pastrami and egg at late night visits). The sandwiches are smaller and have less meat in them (now mostly fries instead of fries as garnish). I think it is nice that they have their own booth at PNC park (the new baseball park) along with Benkovitz Seafoods. Compared to more common ballpark options, this is a great place to try these local offerings. Penn Brewery beers are also available at PNC, and the Weizen was quite good on a hot Saturday evening.

The Strip has definitely gentrified in the past 10 years. There is now a Penzey's around the corner from Primanti's. But there is still a lot of local produce, fish, meat, and italian groceries too. I suppose its no surprise that the hole in the wall Smallman Street Diner is gone, along with the late night waitress who wore more blue eyeshadow that Tammy Faye Baker. Probably best that I didn't see what that place looked like during daylight hours anyway.

There are some more nuggets we will post soon from our side trips to Selin's Grove, Baltimore and Philly -- but we have to concur with many of the recs on this thread -- especially on Full Kee.